Extremely vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi Austin and Jordan,

I have a couple of related questions regarding the aerobic activity recommendations: 1. Is there any downside to using higher intensity activities to get the recommended 500-1000 MET-minutes of activity every week? Rather than doing 75-150 minutes of exercise at 6-7 METs, could you just do 40-75 minutes of exercise at 12-14 METs?
2. Is an air bike / assault bike comparable to actual biking in terms of METs? The Compendium of Physical Activities lists biking at 14-16 mph as a 10 MET activity, but riding the air bike at that pace does not feel like particularly vigorous exercise. Essentially, I’m curious whether doing 10-15 minutes on the air bike every day is enough to be at the high end of the activity guidelines. It almost feels too easy, so I’m wondering if I’m missing some piece of the picture.

Thanks!

2

Shem,

  1. Since those are minimum targets, we’d ideally have you exceed those. Higher intensity exercise doesn’t have a significantly increased risk of bad stuff happening though, no, as exercise is very safe, in general.
  2. They are likely similar.

I think 15 min of air-bike activity every day is the minimum you should shoot for, depending on how much other activity you do and your needs as an individual exercise-wise.

3

Hi Jordan,

Thanks for the response. With regard to the high intensity exercise, I’m not really worried about the risk of bad stuff; I’m just wondering if it carries the same benefits as more moderate exercise. Is 10 minutes of 12 MET exercise as beneficial as 30 minutes of 4 MET exercise?